5 Months!

I really can't believe it.  Where have the last 5 months gone?  Really, where has the past year gone?  I feel like it was just yesterday that I was sitting here holding my breath for my next ultrasound and praying we'd still see a heartbeat...

And now our precious girl is five months old!! A few things she's doing lately:

--Rolling around like crazy...although she hasn't quite figured out that she can use rolling as a mode of transportation yet...

--Eating "solid" food.  So far, bananas and brown rice cereal.  She's had a bite of avocado, but promptly gave me the worst icky face ever and spit it all back out.  We'll be trying it again, lol.

--*Almost* sitting...she can sit for a few seconds, but then falls backwards or sideways unless someone is sitting behind her.

--Sleeping 12 hours (almost) every night.  This seems crazy, and every night I wonder if she's going to wake up.  She goes to bed between 7 and 8pm and wakes up between 7 and 8am.  Which has been wonderful for my work schedule too, because she's ready to eat when I get home at 8am in the morning! :-)
--Smiling and laughing like crazy
--LOVING her jumperoo...she goes nuts in that thing! 
--Getting SO much better at falling asleep by herself, with the help of her musical seahorse (plays soft music for 6 minutes).  This has been so wonderful for nap times and and quick night wakings, we just turn the seahorse on and she's usually asleep before it's done playing.
--She weighs ~17lbs 14oz now!  (weighed w/clothes and diaper on at her vaccine appt today)

The last few days I've been working on a "schedule" with her.  Routine is probably a better word, as I don't want to be controlled by the clock, but rather stick to a close order of the day.  Now that she has a pretty typical night schedule and waking up at roughly the same time every morning, this will work better.  I am reading the books Baby Wise, and really liking the principles in it.  Scott is going to read them too, although I've told him about some of it already.  I did not and do not agree with a structured feeding/sleeping schedule for newborns (who really do need to eat "on-demand"...it's not a heart issue but a health issue as newborns), but for babies over 4 months I'm beginning to believe it's not only good but necessary.  The book says a baby should be sleeping all night long by 6 to 8 weeks, which just seems crazy.  It also said they won't just start sleeping all night on their own without training.  Well, Avi did.  Right at 4 months she started sleeping 10 hours straight and that has now extended to 12 hours most nights.  All we've done is stuck to the same bedtime routine since she was about 2 weeks old.  And she's already responding well to more "routine" during the day too, even in just a couple of days.  One example is the naps.  I tell her "it's naptime, Avi, time to go to sleep" and put her in her crib, turn on the seahorse and leave the room.  She fusses for a few minutes, and then falls asleep, usually within 3 to 5 minutes.  When she wakes up I don't go get her right away.  She doesn't get to decide when the nap is over, I do.  If she's crying I go in and tell her she needs to stop (which I know she doesn't understand yet...) and when she pauses for just a few seconds I pick her up and tell her good job.  She will learn. 

Anyway, that's what's happening lately!  I hope the next 5 months slows down a little, or she's going to be a year old before we know it!!  And walking!! AAAHHHHH!!!

A very blessed wife and mama,
~Abigail~